Less than 48 hours after Coburn Transportation Systems alerted OTA that two tractors that were stolen from its premises, the company contacted the association to say our bulletin to members led to the recovery of one of the units.
Coburn thanked fellow OTA member, ATS Healthcare, who after reading the OTA bulletin realized a tractor he had seen was stolen and belonged to Coburn.
This is just another example of the great benefits of belonging to the OTA network and members looking out for each other.
However, there is a lot of work to be done on the cargo crime front.
OTA has been hearing from members of a sharp increase in cargo crimes throughout the GTA. Yet, in each circumstance the carrier hadn’t completed the CTA-IBC online reporting form. OTA would like to remind carriers that taking immediate steps when victimized can substantially improve possibility of recovery. OTA recommends the following best practices when victimized:
1) Always call 911 in emergency
2) If not emergent, immediately call local law enforcement and file police report.
3) Complete the online CTA-IBC Cargo Reporting Form – this ensures that all law enforcement agencies across Canada have access to uniform information related to the incident
4) Pursue additional resources for information sharing and networking (ie. CargoNet, FreightWatch, etc.)
5) Consider conducting Threat and Risk Assessment to identify possible unapparent vulnerabilities.
OTA continues to work closely with local, regional and provincial law enforcement as well as Insurance Bureau of Canada to raise the profile of this issue and increase prevention. Consider sharing these five steps with your partners to assist in the fight against cargo crime.